The Storm Season

Chasing tornadoes is Burl Drennan's passion. Burl is a young man who, after a brief escape, returns to his small hometown, Nortex, in the Texas panhandle. Directionless, he yearns vaguely to regain his lost freedom, a need that chasing tornadoes seems to fulfill. Burl himself is like the center of his beloved storms: around him events and other characters swirl, giving playwright Hauptman's ( Big River ) first novel its shape and strength. Burl's father, Willie, an alcoholic is dying of cancer; John Arcement, a Vietnam vet and railroad conductor, dreams of building a log cabin near a river; Bebe Sanchez, Burl's lover, sees more clearly than he that his absorption in tornadoes is stronger than his attachment to her. In Hauptman's balanced depiction, each of these characters, through death or through desperation, escapes Nortex and thus dissipates the activity around Burl, who, left to himself, finally perceives his own dream and acts upon it. Engaging, unpretentious characters and an idiosyncratic narrative make this an auspicious debut. (Jan.)